1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to sanitary coverings, and more particularly, to sanitary coverings for shopping carts and the like and particularly the handles of shopping carts to prevent the passage of infectious agents from one shopping cart handler or user to another as well as to relieve anxiety in the users of shopping carts in public places concerning contamination from previous users.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known that many disease agents are passed or vectored from one already infected individual to other individuals through direct body contact or through indirect body contact with objects which have come into body contact with an already infected individual or an individual who has failed to take elementary sanitary precautions. For example, it is well known that many individuals are careless about washing their hands after their toilet and that such individuals may frequently carry disease organisms to other persons.
Disease organisms are frequently, for example, carried from one individual to another in the preparation and serving of food. Other disease organisms may be transferred to originally uninfected individuals from infected individuals through the touching of doorknobs, money and the like. In fact, as is generally known, paper money is sometimes provided with bactericidal preparations in order to inhibit passage of infectious organisms. Various bactericidal sprays are available to spray onto surfaces that might become contaminated by bodily contact and become a vector for infection of subsequent persons coming into contact with such surfaces.
One place where disease and infectious processes may be readily passed from one individual to another is the ordinary handle of a shopping cart. As is well known, almost everyone eventually ends up in food stores with their hands grasping the handles of shopping carts. Such handles are almost never cleaned and are handled in some cases, by scores of people during the normal business day. Many of these people are less careful of their personal hygiene than might be desirable and even fastidiously clean individuals may unwittingly transfer disease organisms to other individuals. For example, it is now known that a prime transmittal mode or medium for the cold virus is not so much through small aerosol particles contaminated with disease organisms floating or suspended in the air, but through physical contact from one individual to another, usually via objects which are handled first by the diseased person and later by a healthy person. It is frequently recommended, therefore, that when one is around a person who may be infected with one of the numerous cold viruses or other respiratory diseases, that the healthy person not touch anything which might be contaminated with such virus or viruses and particularly, should not touch their own nose or eyes with anything which may contact with a surface where the cold virus may have collected such as doorknobs, handles of bathroom fixtures, kitchen and other utensils and the like. While the cold virus usually does not remain infectious outside the human body more than several hours, since it is inactivated by drying or desiccation, many similar viruses will remain active outside the body for perhaps four to five or even six hours in fairly moist conditions, and less than four hours under dry conditions. However, several hours is usually a sufficient amount of time for a virus to be transferred from one individual to another. There are also, of course, numerous bacterial disease organisms which may be similarly transferred by direct or indirect contact and may be infectiously viable for considerably longer periods. For example, many types of staphylococci and streptococci bacteria are quite resistant to drying and thus remain infectious for long periods of time. Staphylococcus aureus has achieved considerable notoriety indeed as a so-called nosocomial, or hospital, infectant, i.e. one which is frequently spread in hospitals, but can be readily spread in other environments on various objects coming in contact with susceptible individuals.
One prime source of infectious contact is generally completely ignored by most persons. This is the handle of the ubiquitous shopping cart found in almost all food stores and supermarkets as well as many other stores such as discount drug stores and the like. The handles of these shopping carts are intimately grasped by many individuals during a day, both those who are healthy and those who are sick, those who may be careful in washing their own hands and those who may never wash their hands. While some members of the public recognize this danger and are loathe to touch the handles of shopping carts, there has until now been little which the average individual could do to avoid contact or contamination from this source, other than to carry a tissue or the like and wipe or polish the handle before using it themselves. Such measures, however, while probably helpful, are by no means an effective solution for a rather serious problem. Without soap and water and/or heat, for example, it is not only very difficult to clean the surfaces of most physical objects, but it is embarrassing for many individuals to have others see them trying to take health precautions when it may be implied from their actions by other persons that their friends and neighbors may find them unsanitary or even disease-ridden. Such ostentatious cleaning might also be thought to project a negative image of the business establishment involved.
Most people, therefore, are unaware of the serious problem with respect to transfer of disease organisms and filth in general from one person to another on the handles of shopping carts and the like and those persons who may be aware of such problem, generally, feel it is necessary to "grin and bear it". While there has been some recognition by certain mothers that it may be detrimental for their children to chew, or "teeth," upon shopping cart handles and some partial covers for preventing such teething or mouthing directly upon the handles have been devised, none, so far as the present Applicant is aware, have been suitable for protecting both children and adults.
While there have in the past, also been advertising coverings for shopping cart handles in the form of paper or plastic coverings which advertise sales and the like in the store in which the cart is used, such advertising coverings have, because of their texture and because they are not changed from one customer to another, increased rather than decreased the problem of preventing transfer of infectious material from one individual to another handling or touching the shopping cart handles, since such advertising coverings have been inherently more likely to retain disease organisms even than the bare handle. It has also been suggested to provide other types of coverings for the handles of shopping carts, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,544, a shopping cart handle is provided with a wraparound cover into which is incorporated a radio receiver and/or transmitter which aids in location and tracking of the shopping cart. Again, while such coverings in effect isolate the shopping cart handle itself from contact with diseased or infectious individuals, since such coverings permanently cover the handles of shopping carts, they do little, if anything, to prevent the transfer of infectious materials from one individual to another who may handle the shopping cart handles and, in fact, probably increase such transfer because of their formation from materials having a rougher texture than the usual original shopping cart handle. Such handles are, therefore, more likely to retain infectious agents for longer periods in a viable state for transference of disease processes from one individual to another.
There has been a need, therefore, for a means to prevent transfer of infectious agents from one individual to another by way of the common shopping cart handle.